


The Funeral of Sonny

by butterflycollective



Category: General Hospital
Genre: Death, F/M, Mayhem, Multi, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-28 18:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20783126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflycollective/pseuds/butterflycollective
Summary: The death of Sonny Corinthoes has rocked the entire town of PC but as others are murdered, buildings are torched and the body count grows, is there a serial killer in the midst?





	1. Chapter 1

The day broke with a brilliant cascade of sunshine upon the sleeping city in upstate New York. That show that had played out since before the beginning of time lasted one memorable moment.

Before the sky noticeably dimmed, so much so that some of the stars awoke from their all too brief slumber and the birds stopped chirping as if cut off brutally mid song.

The lone woman standing on her porch of her house nestled within pine trees stared at the mosaic of colors now playing out in the sky as the light of good suddenly surrendered itself to the darkness of evil. She sipped from her mug of coffee thoughtfully.

Just another day in Pt. Charles.

Only this day looked more like night. Suddenly she remembered why and shivered. The sun had tried futilely to dawn on one of the darkest days in the city's history.

The day that the denizens of this city would lay to rest its most esteemed member, and criminal. Michael Sonny Corinthos. The woman had no plans to attend. She'd packed up the few possessions she intended to take with her towards her next phase in her life. The boxes and suitcases were stashed inside her car, the one parked on the straight waiting for her to drive it the hell out of Dodge.

Only one thing left to do. She reached into the pocket of her leather jacket to pull out the match. She lit it, and tossed it into the broken window of the living house.

Then she walked away, got into her car and drove off as the explosions became more muffled the further she got away from Pt. Charles, informally known to some of its residents as Hell the better and more alive she felt. Leaving the city that had nearly destroyed her, had killed her through muting her one day at a time.

Well fuck that, she told herself, fuck them all, as she journeyed up the coastal highway.

* * *

The explosions which raised a customized house nestled in the forest of pine trees, poison ivy and wild animals went unheard. A young brunette woman with a lanky build and a pinched face kissed the photo trapped in a silver frame and then placed it back as the centerpiece in her shrine.

Then she knelt before her shrine, closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, to pray.

She whispered softly but fervently, squeezing her hands tighter with each spoken word. Sweat beaded her forehead.

"I am the most beloved child...I'm the most loved...I'm the favorite one...I'm still Daddy's little Girl...even with that Jerome brat. I'm still winnning…"

She rocked a bit on her knees as she repeated her manta. A ritual she'd been practicing since before she could remember.

These exact words amended with the birth of each one of her half siblings. Most recent edit had been when she finally had a half sister.

The worst moment of her accelerated life if she had been supplanted as Daddy's princess. She had moved into his compound to cement her place in his life as his favorite little girl. She was Mary to the new girl child's Elizabeth, exiled and she knew it.

The door creaked open behind her, and she knew without turning who had interrupted her.

"Little sister….I see you've finally decided to drop by to check on us…"

The younger woman, an even more willowy, softer brunette with a piercing glare clucked her tongue.

"Darling sister, I'm also your cousin you know as you are mine. I'm here to help your stepmother prepare for my uncle's funeral."

The older sister signed settling back with her feet tucked under her knees. She arched a brow in permanent reproach.

"But where is that woman called our mother? Where is she now?"  
The younger sister shrugged.

"Who cares? The only thing that matters is that we're mourning the most beloved soul in our city and we need to be here for his family."

The older sister nodded.

"Yes, as my father might have said, if he were alive. Mother dearest is dead to me."

She knew her dearly departed daddy would be so happy for her for winning.

* * *

The most recent woman to give birth in Pt. Charles sat on the couch waiting for the father of her children to return home from some unspecified errands he had said needed to be done.

An item of painfully grueling items to be completed and checked off a list which just reminded him of the unthinkable.

Michael Sonny Corinthos was dead.

A tremor tore through the cramped penthouse as a timely aftershock to recent events which had broken the Richter scale. She glanced around her furtively.

"Son and daughter Is that you?"

Nothing responded except the faint whistle of the breeze blowing through town, fresh off of the harbor which hid many secrets.

Then she settled into the plush couch awaiting the arrival of her husband.

* * *

The blonde creature in front of him's voice turned from begging into whining. The broad shouldered unsmiling man grunted. His eyes looked past her.

"I'm not acting for very much," she said, "I just want a baby, a reminder of what I and my husband had and since he's not here...who better than his best friend forever?"

The man folded his arms looking taller. He grunted and sighed and grunted again.

"I...can't….I can do anything else just not...that."

The woman snarled and her clenched her fingers, revealing her talons. Then she started pacing.

"You know how much I loved him….I never wavered from that...not for very long anyway. And you've always been my best friend, there for me whenever. Sometimes I didn't even have to call you. We were psychically connected."

The man blinked, not so sure about that. Then grunted again and cleared his throat.

"Like I said, I can't...I'm not allowed. I don't even know myself. So the answer is no…"

She stepped closer to him and traced his arm with a talon.

"Oh but the act of conception, it'd be like hot...not as good as my husband and just between us, your caliber is much higher…"

The man blanched and then coughed and then grunted.

"My wife...it reads here that I'm supposed to be the hawk or wolf on this show since they're mad at …" his voice dropped to a whisper… "You know who…."

She pulled out the crucifix as a shield.

"Don't mention him. He's Satan. He killed my husband, well he would have if he'd had the chance. He's to blame for everything...not being able to find a parking place at the mall. The increase in price of gummy bears and hot cocoa…global warming...world wars..."

The man crouched and then grunted again.

"You're not…."

Suddenly a figure dressed in a black tank and jeans grabbed him from behind and knocked him out cold.

The woman's face smiled and she giggled.

"I KNEW you'd come back for me. Now I need to ask you a favor…."

* * *

The wiry nurse knocked out the blonde one for mouthing off at her and then clocked into her shift on the computer.

Last one thing she wanted to hear this morning was another round of gossip. Her live in boyfriend was sleeping in after coming to her rescue the previous night.

He was entitled. She had her middle child make him a sandwich before she left.

After clocking in and stepping over the body of the blonde nurse, she picked up an issue of hte local newspaper.

Her heart tightened and she berated herself for her lapse in memory about the most tragic event in the city's history. She was damaged goods, one of the masses of unwashed residents of a city of thousands. The population of them had decreased with some of them leaving town in the dead of night.

Suddenly she was interrupted by a tall willowy redhead woman she vaguely remembered seeing on occasion. The woman pranced up to her handing her an envelope. She looked at the wild eyed girl woman suspiciously.

"What is this?"

The other woman smiled.

"Oh don't you know? You and I are long lost sisters! I just found out today! Open it up and you'll see I speak the truth."

The nurse arched her brow but sure enough the letter proved to be as claimed. She and the vaguely familiar woman in front of her were siblings.

"Wait...I have a sister...just out of the blue like this too but she…"

The other woman waved her hand dismissively.

"Who cares? You are MY sister. I'm not YOURS. Now excuse me I have a daughter, a son, and two ex husbands to receive letters. This is SO exciting. I'm SO glad I woke up this morning."

Her recently notified sister looked horrified.

"How can you say such a thing? This is our darkest hour. Sonny has just died…"

The loon nodded.

"Oh that...he's my first boyfriend I ever had...I'll just leave his letter with his next of kin…"

The nurse watched the woman flounce off down the hallway, and rolled her eyes. She had enough work to do. Brad had informed her that two lovers were awaiting DNA tests and the results wouldn't make either happy. And could send both of them to jail.

Fuck this town.

* * *

In the distance another explosion pierced through the quiet mourning of an upstate New York town.


	2. Chapter 2

The two fraternal twins looked at each other, from across the room. More than seven feet of distance separated them, both were adorned with silver colored bracelets separated by a few inches of chain.

Arrested for violating a penal code or two, not to mention committing a sin that would surely send both straight to Hell. Justice had been brutal, if not entirely swift.

Michael Corinthos longed to scratch the itch in the middle of his upper back but couldn't, because he had been inducted into the not so honorary chapter of the Bracelet Club. He looked lonely at the woman who not only was his step aunt but had just been revealed to be his full fraternal twin sister as well.

Hecursed inside his head as he often did, for he had many demons in his life. This time he reserved his most harsh profane words for the lab tech Brad at the general hospital. The man who ran the DNA profile test that had destroyed his life.

Nelle glanced at him, as if she sensed the inner turmoil of his thoughts at the chain of events that had just destroyed their fragile if star crossed love affair.

Like twins often do in and out of the womb, they projected their sorrow, passion, anger, fear and bitterness telepathically, so those horrible officers slapping cuffs on their wrists couldn't bear witness.

Nelle choked back a bitter whimper. Her hand moved to brush a tendril of hair out of her face but the metal cuff pushed back.

"Oh Michael my love, I'll never regret the time we spent together. Your forgiveness for drugging and stripping your father, trying to blackmail him."

Michael bit back a whimper.

"I don't blame you for any of that my love, " he said, "as I long forgave my father and praised him for ridding the world of my evil sperm donor."

Nelle tilted her head.

"Oh Michael how long must we be apart, our love denied because of whoever did this...it had to be my...our mother…"

Michael just gritted his teeth, keeping his anger in check. Just barely, but he knew that if his mother were responsible for this travesty of justice, he would never forgive her and would condemn her twisted cell to Hell forever.

Borrowing the beloved mantra of his deceased father….

His mother would be dead to him.

* * *

Kristina looked at her younger half sister, with a small smile on her lips, a twisted dagger in her heart.

"Oh it's you….," she said, eying the toddler who had just waddled inside of the room.

Molly looked at her older sister, puzzled before going over and picking up Avery. She held the complacent child in her arms throwing Krissy an arched brow.

"But you love Avery, we all do, even if she was spawned from that unholy Ava Jerome. They're all trash, the Jeromes but Avery has all of her genes from Sonny which makes her holy and just."

Kristina curled her lip in distaste.

"My daddy got trashed and fornicated with that...gangster moll on top of a crypt in the Quartermaine mausoleum. If only….Edward or Lila had just sent down a bolt of lightning and fried her ass…"l

Molly gasped at the venom spit out of her sister's china doll face.

"But your father...he might get burned up too. You wouldn't want to hurt him…"

Kristina shrugged.

"A glancing blow maybe. _I _was supposed to be daddy's little princess. That's why Sam's baby daughter was stillborn to save my precious life. It was a gift to ensure my survival which was of supreme importance. And for years I have been his little girl...but now...that's all ruined."

She stomped her foot...twice in pique. Molly shrunk back a step. What words had just spewed out of her very troubled sister's mouth approached blasphemy. She inwardly flinched wondering if the gods from above would punish Kristina for speaking ill of the dead.

But the heavens remained silent save the mournful rains that pebbled the windows of the estate of the late Michael Sonny Corinthos, jr.

* * *

Carly's whining went up a few decibels and the man in front of her didn't even flinch. Dressed in a black muscle shirt, not a hair on his head moving, the man flexed his jaw and just stared at her.

"What did you just say?"

Carly had stars at her eyes as she allowed the indescribable rapture of the return of her best friend forever into her life. She knelt before him.

"Oh Jason I knew you'd return to me. No matter what blocked your path, the obstacles you had to conquer, I knew you'd come back to me and only me…."

Jason looked confused. He blinked his eyes, breathing slowly.

"Say what?"

She got back on her feet again, brushing the wrinkles in her dress.

"Why, I just lost the love of my life Sonny to an act of violence and I so wanted to bear a child by him since Morgan kind of got blown up...and now I can't...but if you...I we had a child it'd be the next best thing."

Jason's brow furrowed and he flexed his arms unaware of this action.

"You...me...as long as I get to keep my clothes on…."

Carly clapped her hands all giddy.

"Yes of course Jase. You know I have a long line of men waiting to jump my bones because I'm really all that but I saved myself for you….just you...so we could share a child…"

Jason scratched the back of his neck, looked to the crumpled body on the ground.

"What about him? I thought you just called him Jason."

Carly shrugged.

"Him? He's a nobody…" she glanced to her left…"Yo Frank, get this nobody out of here...Jase and I got things to do…."

* * *

Sam rubbed her tummy after she polished off her takeout from the Noodle Buddha, as she waited for her husband to return home. It'd been hours. She fed their two children, bathed them and sent them to bed.

The clock ticked. Hour after hour and still that front door didn't open announcing his arrival. She grabbed the remote to turn on the television and realized it was the nightly news hour.

She saw a blonde woman with perfect teeth speaking to her viewing audience in front of the smouldering ruins of what had once been a house.

"And this is Celeste Turner in front of what remains of a house on the outskirts of Pt. Charles as firefighters clean up after the four alarm blaze that resulted from a mysterious explosion earlier…."

Sam's eyes widened.

"No word from firefighters on the cause...just that it looks suspicious. Is it arson, is it accidental? Mum's the word from official corners for now…."

She reached for her cell phone.

* * *

Liz clutched the DNA report in her hand. Surely this must be a joke, a cruel trick rather than an even more ghastly twist of faith. She checked the schedule to see if usual suspect for tainting DNA tests, Brad was at work tonight.

Then the ditzy blonde nurse Amy she had just knocked unconscious a moment ago finally stirred. Liz glanced down at her in annoyance.

"Why are you even here? You sell out, you traitor…"

Amy raised her hands in surrender.

"I'm just the messenger. I was just trying to warn you that that crazy red headed bitch Nina was your sister...and after what you went through with Hayden…"

Liz wanted to vomit right then and there, but her professional ethics took over. She'd deal with this shocking revelation later. She brushed a curl off of her porcelain face.

"It's no big deal...the woman's a loon she probably falsified the test to get attention...sell magazines...to try to kidnap my kids but they're safe with Grandma Audrey in the attic…"

Amy bit her lip.

"Then everything's okay. So I can just uh, leave and continue to worm my knight in shining armor Nathan away from that shallow skanky wife of his…"

Liz hesitated, not wanting to get involved in this drama that had nothing to do with her own complicated life.

"Okay whatever...but the new patient in room 405 needs his catheter changed so do that first…"

Amy got up and Liz watched her walk off, seeing something dangerously off kilter in that backstabbing scab of a nurse.

* * *

Ric Lansing, otherwise known as dreamboat daddy by his adoring daughter Molly walked outside in his fancy robe to fetch the daily newspaper.

He never felt the gunshot that pierced his heart and bled out his body from the inside out.

A distance away, the woman who had burned her bridges in her old life by burning down her house watched him collapse in a sea of crimson on his doorstep before returning to her car.


	3. Chapter 3

Molly Davis Lansing sat on her bed clicking the remote, looking for something to watch. The poetry reading she had planned to attend that night had been canceled by her very hip and rocking women's lit professor.

The older woman had gently stroked her hair back in a way that soothed Molly as she delivered the unfortunate news. She remembered years ago, when her own mother had done that. During any illnesses she experienced, after she woke up from nightmares.

When her favorite soap, Southwest General, had been canceled.

Her brow furrowed as her slender fingers worked the buttons on the remote. Her mother. Oh yeah, it had been ages since she had talked to her or dropped in at her lakehouse. When was the last time she had even thought of her? She thought about it for two minutes and then finally shrugged, flopping on the bed. Maybe a text tomorrow?

Damn there was nothing to watch on the tube. She had exhausted the libraries of all of her livestreaming platforms. Not that most of the movies weren't total junk at this point. Her hand idly reached for her chai ice tea bottle as she clicked to a news station. A woman with her hair pulled back tightly in a bun looked somber as she spoke to her audience standing in front of a house that had been cordoned off by yellow crime tape.

Molly's eyes widened. The house, there was something very familiar about it, which warranted a closer look.

"This is Wendy Wright from KLAX at the scene of a house where tonight a body was found near the front door. The victim of an apparent drive by shooting. A development which has rocked this usually very peaceful, unassuming neighborhood."

Molly rolled her eyes, knowing from experience there was no such thing outside of a novel. After all the house where she grew up had been blown up because her mother's no good mobster thug of a boyfriend turned husband had tried to leave the mob.

Only he hadn't done so and had even tried to frame her dreamboat daddy before her smoking hot father had to fake his own death...like something out of a... the now defunct Southwest General.

The reporter continued.

"There's no confirmation yet or release of the name of the his next of kin have been notified. Only information released by LAPD is that he's a caucasian male in his early fifties who neighbors said was a partner at a prominent law firm."

Molly bit her lip in thought just as her boyfriend TJ walked in her dorm room and dropped his heavy stack of textbooks with a sigh. She glanced at him.

"Midterms tough?"

He nodded, then walked to the mini frig to grab himself a chia tea and joined her on the bed.

"What's this?"

Molly sighed.

"Some poor guy got shot to death on his own front step by some gangster driving by," she said, "in a really nice neighborhood too."

TJ shrugged.

"Shit happens. Hey why don't we go to Kelly's and get ourselves some real food. Even though for you it's that tofu crap."

She nodded and they walked off hand in hand out of the room, leaving the TV blaring behind them just as a man's face appeared on screen.

* * *

Across town at the MC, a willowy woman danced around her penthouse office. She writhed on the furniture and climbed onto her desk, shimmying her hips the entire time. Her dress, an expensive marriage of leather and lace clung to her figure as she waved her hands fervently.

"I'm the best. God I'm the best,. I have all the best clothes. The best office. Everything's the best."

She jumped off the desk onto the floor, picking up a stack of letters that had shared the best news.

Her family had expanded greatly in the past several hours. She had a newly discovered sister. Another brother and two more ex husbands.

Best of all she had a newly discovered daughter AND a son. She knew her husband, Valentin would be so pleased for her! Clapping her hands she went to her cabinet to grab some wine and a glass to celebrate her good fortune. She poured it and toasted it to the ceiling.

"To my family new and old, to my fabulously rich husband, to my new horse stable, tand to you...Frank."

She heard a knock on the partially opened door and leaned into her desk, hand on hip.

"Who is it?"

A young blonde walked in carrying a stack of magazines. Nina rolled her eyes..

"Oh it's just you…"

Maxie gritted her teeth at the condescension coming from the loon who had stolen her birthright away from her. But she swallowed her resentment and forced a smile, silently biding her time to get back what was hers.

By any means necessary, that bitch was going down.

"I've completed the schedule for the shoot at the waterfront. Rico is going to bring some of his best models."

Nina waved her hand.

"Oh that...I changed my mind. I'll be modeling all the new designs myself. I'm much more beautiful, sexy and everyone loves me."

Maxie bit back an easy retort. She would get back what was hers if she played her hand carefully. Nina might have wealth of privilege and favoritism and one hell of a powerful sugar daddy, but she wasn't all that bright.

"I don't think that's a wise choice. I booked some of the best models in the business. We can't just cancel."

Nina flipped her hair back.

"Oh 'we' don't have to do so. That's your job. As Nelle's assistant. And since she's my assistant, that means you answer to me."

Maxie rolled her eyes, reining in her more homicidal instincts. She tried another tact.

"Nina, I know you're beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful woman in the city."

The other woman narrowed her eyes.

"Only in this city? After I model these clothes and Dillon does the shoot, I will be in demand all over the world as a world famous model."

Maxie shrugged. She didn't want to do anything to discourage that because it might get her Crimson back.

" Okay the entire world and I think that's a brilliant idea. I know a good agent who could book you some jobs. Help you get your feet wet."

Nina looked blank.

"My feet. What's wrong with my feet?"

She waved her hand idly.

"No matter I can do it myself. After I go try on some new outfits and get a mani-ped even though there's nothing wrong with my feet."

Maxie just rolled her eyes again, clenched her talons into fists. She just wanted to clock the bitch. It's not like there hadn't already been a murder in this office. She reached for the monogrammed letter opener on the table…

* * *

Sam looked at Kristina who had dropped by the penthouse bearing gifts, in this case takeout from Noodle Buddha. She blew past Sam and started arranging the food on the table. Kristina wore one of her flowery tops over a pair of beige slacks and sketchers. Her sister looked at her with some reproach.

"Have you been getting any sleep?"

Sam waggled her index finger.

"I'll tell you the answer to that question is no...but the kids are tucked in their beds and asleep. I'm just waiting for Jason to return home."

Kristina frowned.

"I'm sure he'll be back home soon. You know how devoted he's been to you and the kids lately. Which is a bit odd when you think about it."

Sam collapsed on the floor.

"I know it's not like him at all. I don't know why I didn't notice the obvious signs earlier. Maybe because so much was going on and I just hadn't paid attention but...I can't believe I'm even considering this"

Kristina walked over to the sofa and sat down, curling her feet underneath her.

"What is it? What is i that has you so upset?"

Sam hesitated, not wanting to put her suspicions, her deepest fears into words that would change everything.

She sat down to join her younger sister.

"I don't think Jason is really...Jason."

* * *

Ned Ashton Quartermaine stepped in between the two women. One had her hands wrapped around the neck of the other one, and both were struggling.

"Ladies, I don't think this is necessary…"

Both women ignored him. In fact they started pulling each other's hair and tousled down to the ground.

Awkward to say the least. That's because one of them was his auntie Monica and the other one his betrothed Olivia Falconeri.

"You need to just stop this right now. Monica. Olivia. You need to get up off the floor and apologize to one another."

Neither woman listened to his advice. Olivia straddled Monica and curled her fingers into a fist.

"I'm going to slap that trashy spit right out of your mouth."

Monica gritted her teeth in defiance.

"I'd love to see you try."

Ned sighed, not sure how to proceed in resolving this disagreement between the matriarch and wannabe matriarch of the Manor. Suddenly, the butler Reginald walked in, glancing down at the brawl in distaste before focusing his attention on Ned who arched his brows.

"What is it?"

Reginald smiled.

"I come bearings gifts." He pulled out one of his hands behind his back and presented a brightly wrapped box.

Ned felt confused.

"Gifts? I'm not expecting any presents. Is there a card?"

Reginald handed him the box and Ned searched it ignoring the two women on the floor who were still going at it.

"You'll have to see it for yourself sir."

Ned frowned as he did indeed find a card. Nothing fancy, just some writing elegant in its simplicity.

"It says Happy anniversary, signed…it's not signed at all. Oh well I guess I'll just see what's inside it."

He walked out of the room into the foyer unwrapping the box carefully. He lifted the lid of the box and his eyes narrowed as he saw what was inside it. His eyes widened suddenly.

"What the…"

An explosion ripped away his words in mid sentence and shook the entire mansion .all the way down to its foundation.

* * *

The woman sat in the bar, after she ordered an Arnold Palmer. She'd almost gone for the White Russian on the menu, almost tasting it in her mouth. But as the bartender awaited her order unaware of her inward struggle,, she chose something tamer.

She looked around her at this familiar bar that was many miles away from the city she'd left forever and many years away from one night a lifetime ago.

The bartender provided her drink and a cocktail napkin and she walked to an empty table. As she nursed her drink, she sighed, wondering why it had taken her so long to get to this point. She had itched to commit these acts for so long now. They were hardwired into more than must her fucked up DNA.

The door opened and she side eyed it, until she recognized the person and her eyes widened. He bypassed the war walking directly to her table.

"Hello darling…


	4. Chapter 4

The blonde pixie paced the living room of her apartment, wearing it down to the very last fiber. Her uber handsome husband and cop turned reality TV star watched her retrace the same steps over and over.

"I'm going to castrate that red headed bitch…"

Nathan West widened his eyes at the words his wife had just uttered against his older sister. He tried to placate her.

"Maxie honey you don't mean that. You don't. Nina was just doing her job. She must have had her reasons."

His wife spat out a few curse words and others that in the proper context could get handcuffs slapped on her. She spun and pointed a manicured talon in his face, perilously close to his jugular.

"Bullshit Nathan. I created Crimson against incredible odds and working with a an assortment of crazies not the least of which is your loon of a sister."

Nathan flinched at her choice of terminology, but didn't interrupt her. She continued, pacing more holes in the carpet with her stilettos.

"I'm going to kill the bitch. If that's what it takes to get my magazine that I put all my blood, sweat and tears away from her I'll do it."

Nathan folded her arms.

"I can't let you do it Maxie. I'd have to arrest you. You would be the town pariah because Nina is so revered in this town and is becoming the newest matriarch of the House of Cassadine though I don't like that part."

Maxie rolled her eyes at her usually charming if someone dimwitted husband's blathering about his loser of a sister. A recognized drugger of pregnant women and baby napper. Even though she was no fan of the Jeromes, she really wished they had taken her out. It would have made it much easier to get her magazine back. But she had some experience with Cassadines which shifted her thinking to realize she might not have to do anything.

Just sit back and watch the carnage. If Valentin was truly a chip off the old block and not some marked down ripoff.

She chuckled.

"You look at me as if I'm some kind of threat to her rather than the man she married, I mean she hooked up with a known cold blooded killer just to steal Lulu's child."

Nathan wagged a finger at her.

"Now you know better than that. Lulu is rightfully banished to the catacombs for trying to poison Charlotte against my sister. I don't agree with her choice of consorts but my sister's just trying to be a good mommy. She had a child of her own she lost…"

Maxie rolled her eyes so damned tired of Nina's 20 year old sob story and her box of pain. It's not like she ever went against anything truly horrible. A heart transplant, a one night stand with a serial killer, nearly marrying a psycho and more lately this horrible Man Landers crap.

That was hell on earth.

However she decided this conversation was a lost cause and it wouldn't get her magazine back. Murder wasn't an option either. She would have to come up with a new plan

* * *

Reginald heard the banshee scream for the very first time and thought it had come for him. He ran out of the room to get his affairs in order.

Oh, it's just Olivia.

She had collapsed on her knees trying to revive her beloved if underachieving husband. Her screams which shattered crystal eventually settled into moans as the truth hit her.

Someone had murdered Ned. Olivia made the sign of the cross.

"Who would do this evil act? Why would anyone want to hurt my Nedley?"

She wondered if it had been someone in this household. But no, it couldn't be. Quartermaines might not necessarily stay together but intrafamily homicide was relatively rare among their ranks.

Reginald looked ill at ease.

"It's a horrible mess. I shall get the chambermaids to clean it up."

Olivia pointed a finger upward.

"You can't I fired them. Plus we can't disturb the scene of this horrible crime."

Reginald shrugged as a harried Monica came up behind him.

"What happened?"

Olivia sighed heavily.

"Ned is no more. Darkness has once again fallen in Pt. Charles. What is the world coming to? First Sonny, and now Ned."

Two men who had cherished and loved her. There had to be a connection here.

Olivia clutched her chest with her hand.

"Someone's trying to ruin my life."

* * *

Carly smiled at the man opposite of her. Her true best friend of all time who dropped whatever he was doing or whoever he was with to help her during times of need.

"Oh you are the real Jason. I know it. Do you know how I know it?"

The steely eyed man blinked. Stared. Blinked again and then grunted.

"How?"

A man of few actions and even fewer words.

"Because you risked it all to come back to me...oh and Sonny of course. It's just tragic that you couldn't save his life."

Jason sighed, blinked. Rubbed his two hands together.

"I couldn't get here any sooner. I'll do better next time...if someone tries to kill you or Michael."

Carly knew that's the most she'd get out of him for now. It would have to be enough.

Plenty of time to prepare for the conception of the most perfect human being on the planet. The best way to honor Sonny.

She watched Jason flex his jaw and blink a couple times with a calculated smile.

* * *

Jerry Jacks had a fondness for Scotch and beautiful women, none more so than the one sitting at the table. Her eyes widened when she saw him.

"Yes it's me darling...It's been so long since we've been in the same place because they had me hanging out with inconsequential people. Though crossing paths with Bobbie brought back memories."

She nodded.

"Back when you had a different face."

He nodded.

"Back when you and my brother went off on some adventure and needed rescuing."

She scoffed.

"That's not how it happened."

He sighed putting his glass on the table. She shot it a lingering look.

"What is this about? It's been…"

He smiled, sliding into a seat across from her.

"Too long darling...since I moved a satellite for you.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Among other things, like poisoning the entire town including my girls."

"They got the antidote, I got my money to save my own life."

She sipped from her woefully inadequate Arnold Palmer.

"Why are you here, and tell me the truth?"

He leaned back and looked directly at you.

"I know what you've been up to darling, and just want to know if I'm next on your list…"


	5. Chapter 5

Ava poured her third martini, plumping a green olive in it watching it sink slowly to the bottom. She brought it up to eye level, scrutinized the harmony between two of her favorite forms of substance engaged in their usual mating dance. 

Both eager for her approval because it was all for her. She nodded in satisfaction. She was the queen of her universe but the universe had been disturbed recently by the tragic death of Avery’s baby daddy. Their bodies had collided more than they had melded. A frantic mating in front of an audience of dead Quartermaines etched into the walls of their most hallowed ground. Outside of the Q boardroom of course and in the process, they had conceived the most perfect child in all of history. 

A child not born of love but something darker than that. The opposite of that coin but the universe watched and became enthralled at what happened within its midst.

It’s not like they did hate sex in PC anymore. 

She downed the martini in a single swallow, the liquid massaging her throat. Leaving the bereft olive in the glass living on borrowed time. It’s purpose in life fulfilled. 

Her brother arched his brow and she sighed dramatically. 

“Really big brother, it’s been one of the most difficult of times, what with Avery left fatherless and that she beast refuses to let me see her.”

Julian shrugged. 

“That man threatened to kill you and he’s tried to kill me more than once.”

“Well it seems that the universe solved your problem even as it robbed little Ava of her daddy.”

Julian frowned for a moment pursing his lips. 

“If the universe sent an assassin it wasn't me.if that is where this is leading.”

Ava put her martini glass down. She would wait for her dear if overprotective was gone before she’d finish the bottle. 

“Really do tell…”  
“Whoever did it and I’m not saying I know who. It wasn’t one of the usual suspects.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commissioner Jordan flipped open a file on the open homicide investigation into Michael Sonny Corinthos. Her heart aching for such a tragic loss. An act of violence that had ripped a huge hole in the canvas of PC. Nathan stood beside her looking very pretty but had little to say being a man of few words. 

He was still waiting to clear his first case and it had been years. 

“Commish it’s clearly not accidental. I talked to the car manufacturer and no recent history of exploding engine parts. It could have been a short circuit in the gas tank…”

Jordan rolled her eyes. 

“Of course it’s murder. It’s an assasination, against one of the greatest philamprothist in history. We must solve it.” 

Nathan seemed less sure. 

“If Sonny was so beloved, who would want to take him out? 

Jordan rolled her eyes again. If only Mayor Laura Collins could see what she had to work with in this pitiful department in a town where if it weren’t for...she fought to squeeze one tear out of her eyes then shook her head with resolve. Sonny wouldn’t want his commissioner to cry copious tears over his loss. He would want her to solve the crime, to find who had snuffed out his powerful life force and brought darkness to Pt. Charles. 

She sighed. 

“With someone so beloved, there’s no shortage of people who could have committed this heinous crime. It could have been…”

A random thought, the snapshot of a suspect hit her. She shook her head almost immediately. No it couldn’t be that person. Yes, there had been some killings linked to him in the past but he had changed, yes he had really changed.   
His name was in the rolodex she had of every denizen of PC that fit that profile but this man had a special gold star next to it. She placed her hand over her heart, shielded by her badge. 

“Commissioner Ashton?”

She looked up and blinked her eyes at the man standing in front of her. He’d grown a beard and his hair was lighter. Not to mention he was a couple inches shorter. He wore a little golden cross around his neck. 

“You’re not Nathan. Who the hell are you and what happened to him?”

At that moment an explosion rocked the building.   
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carly rubbed a melting ice cube across the tanned chest bringing the nipples of the man lying next to her to attention. He snored quietly next to her as she felt a gentle breeze of his exhalations caress her own skin. 

She rubbed her navel with the palm of a hand, marveling at the act of conception that certainly had taken place. A miracle of nature, the outcome of perfect timing plus an infusion of a remnant of Sonny. 

During the entire act, she had held a charred piece of the lift in Sonny’s right shoe in her hand. It would not shame his memory for her to do so. He was a giant among men in other ways.   
“Blessed be the fruit of thy womb, the spirit of thy body,” she whispered, her eyelids shut in deep contentment. 

Across the room the lithe brunette dressed in black sat dumbly watching her Jason lying asleep next to Carly. Not the imposter that had haunted her life so briefly before being exposed as a fake by the same crowd that had proclaimed him the one who had returned from the depths of the harbor for her. Just her and no one else. Not Sonny. Not Carly. Not Michael. Not Morgan. Not his leather jacket, his motorcycle, his box of pain, his…  
A spike of pain hit her suddenly at the reminder she should have known he was not Jason but a carbon look alike.   
“Under his eye,” Sam mumbled, knowing somewhere Sonny was watching. 

But who was waiting? 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Monica thought about just killing the fishwife already but instead she seethed as she swept up the last remaining shards of crystal that had gone to smithereens with the rest of the collection.

She looked at them then carefully placed them in a jeweled box that was then tucked away in the special crevice in the rubble of the fireplace that still stood amid the ruins. 

Alan had given her this crystal vase, in between attempts to kill her back in the earlier days of their marriage. 

Another round of wails reverberated through the shell of the mansion. 

Oliva Fuckinari. 

Monica closed her eyes, sighing deeply. If that bitch didn’t shut up….

“Dr. Quartermaine,” 

She looked up and saw Finn McBain, MD come up to her with a clipboard in his hand. 

“What are you doing here? Is there any news on why Ned is dead? Oh wait...you’re not a cop anymore. I just don’t know who would do such a thing...outside the family.”  
Finn pursed his lips.   
“I see. I don’t have any information on Ned. I’m here to talk to Mrs. Falconari.”  
Monica waved her hand.   
“Oh don’t bother with her. Low life trash. Wouldn’t shock me if some mobster level trash tried to take her out and Ned was killed just instead.”  
“So you think it could have been a hit. Something in connection with the tragic murder of Sonny Corinthoes?”  
Monica shrugged.   
“Maybe. I don’t know. I just don’t see anyone wanting to harm Ned. He’s so…”  
Finn waited for her to finish but she seemed lost in thought or a memory.   
“Okay so maybe it was a business rival of his...Were any mergers taking place, corporate raiding?”  
Monica shook her head.   
“Ned’s not really into that. He’s kind of a disappointment to his grandfather taking up with that gutter…”  
Finn held up his hand.   
“Okay so...well this has been so helpful.”  
He took out a whistle and blew it. Within seconds, a harried looking brunette woman joined him, out of breath.   
“What is it Finn? Do you have anything for me to do?”  
Finn paused for a moment, eying Monica who seemed to be gazing into the remnants of the fireplace.   
“Sure Anna, why don’t you fetch me a pen?”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
She looked at the man in front of her and laughed deep in her throat.   
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Jerry, “ she said, “By the way you’re looking...well. Better than the last time we crossed paths.”  
He smirked, fingering the rim of the bourbon a harried waiter had dropped in front of him.   
“Don’t change the subject darling...You’ve left a trail of dead bodies and I am impressed. Looks like our time together rubbed off.”   
She sipped her drink, cursing its lack of kick.   
“Don’t flatter yourself. You tried to kill my girls...and tied me to your boat to sail off into the sunset…”  
He chuckled.   
“So this is how you respond? By killing people who have graced your bed? I know some of them probably couldn’t satisfy you like myself but…”  
She tilted her head in reproach.   
“Really Jerry, no new material? Has the well run dry...among other things?”  
He rubbed his index fingers together, slowly.   
“Nothing about me is dry...darling. You know that...but why the killing spree?”   
She looked at him long and hard, before gesturing the waiter over to bring her the vodka.   
“Why not?”


End file.
